From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: tribimat{at}gmail.com
Subject: Re: Oxford

In article , Stephen Wilson 
 wrote:
> 
> "The Doctor"  wrote in message 
> news:ihulj3$13k$1{at}gallifrey.nk.ca...
> >
> > Gallimaufrey which no doubt Gallifrey is dervied from.
> 
> Why "no doubt"? I don't believe the author that came up with
Gallifrey has 
> ever stated where he got the idea of the word from. Presumably Terrance 
> Dicks or Robert Holmes - I think it was first mentioned on screen in the 
> Time Warrior.
> 
> > Still Doctor Who has influenced the Oxford dictionary no doubt!
> 
> Again, why "no doubt"? What influences the dictionary is the English 
> language and the way in which it is used. One word invented for Dr Who is in 
> there - Dalek (and the dictionary apparently describes a Dalek as
"a type of 
> robot appearing in 'Dr. Who', a B.B.C. Television science-fiction programme; 
> hence used allusively."). There are about 600,000 other words in
the Oxford 
> dictionary. 1 word in 600,000 is not a particularly major influence...

Three words: Tardis n. and Cyberman n. are also on OED Online (the 
latter under cyber-, combining form). By comparison, Star Trek has 
contributed Klingon n. and Trekkie n., as well as the 'teleport' sense 
of beam v., the energy-weapon sense of phaser n., mind-meld n., photon 
torpedo n., Prime Directive n., warp factor n., warp speed n., and on a 
rather different note, K/S n., the original slash fiction.

You are of course right that the OED (and most general-purpose 
dictionaries) only tries to reflect how the language is used.

-- 
Matthew

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